French - Flemish

These are two different languages that have nothing in common.

-Flemish is a Germanic language,
it is spoken in the north of Belgium (Flanders).
Here Belgium borders Holland.
Flemish is in fact the same language as Dutch, which is spoken in Holland. Flemish and Dutch have the same dictionary.
There are only some small differences with word choice and accents.
(Pretty much like English/American).

Dutch/Flemish

I am FLEMISH,
I live in Belgium about 8 miles from the Dutch border.
When you cross that border (no customs or anything) you really SEE a difference between the two countries :
In Holland, houses are smaller, cycle lanes are wider, food is different,
and as for language, the ACCENT changes.

Yet Flemish and Dutch are in principle the same language.
We have the same dictionary.
But sometimes we tend to use different words, and the pronunciation may vary a little.

As I mentioned before,
pretty much like American/English and/or Spanish/South American Spanish.

Re: French vs Flamish

Hi All,

My name is Said and I lived most of life in Flanders, probably not far from Frank (by the way, aangename kennismaking!).

Everything he said is indeed correct, but there are also some important cultural differences with the Netherlands. I personally think these are mainly caused by the historical contrast between the Roman-catholic inspired culture in Belgium, and the Germanic-protestant lifestyle in the Netherlands. In any case, there is a wide array of literature available on the subject, any good book on European history can give you an insight into the cause of those differences.

Re: French vs Flamish

Hi Frank,

I used to live in Ghent but moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina almost one year ago. When I came here for the first time in 2005 it was love at first sight, and I ended up settling down here after some initial doubts.

After a while I was able to get a steady job, and I am doing some translation work on the side, which is actually my secret passion.